Visiting Juneau

Mendenhall Glacier

    While riding the ferry to Juneau we were blessed to meet a family that live in Juneau. They were on their way home from Phoenix AZ after having spent 7 months there for medical treatments. Greg and Jenny and their 2 daughters were enjoyable and gave us lots of insights and tips that related to Juneau. We continue to pray for healing for Jenny and know that they are a family of strong faith. 

Jenny and one of her daughters (center of pic)

      When we docked at Juneau it was around 11pm when we drove off the ferry. We found a small NF campground about 2 miles from the dock to camp at for the night. The next morning went shopping at Fred Myers for supplies and gas before heading out to Mendenhall Lake NF campground to get our campsites that we had reserved for the next 3 nights. It was a nice campground that had nice views of the glacier right across the lake. There were around 80 sites and only about a dozen or so occupied. We headed over to the Mendenhall visitor center that afternoon. The weather was rather gray and misty but we hiked out the mile to see Nugget Falls while there.

Janet, Steve, Leanne and Gary at Mendenhall Glacier visitor center

Nugget Falls

     Tuesday morning while Steve & Leanne and Gary & Janet went to do a Zip-line adventure Joyce and I went across to Douglas Island to hike a trail up in the  high country. The trail was actually quite swampy even though it was high in the mountains and we were on a boardwalk for probably 2 miles of the 3 we hiked.

We enjoyed beautiful mountain views as we hiked along.

Boardwalk on trail 

View along trail on Douglas Island

There were usually 4 or 5 cruise ships docked in Juneau most days

     We were amazed at the number of cruise ships that visit Juneau each day. One might think that the thousands of cruise ship visitors would be a big deal to the local economy. We found out from the locals that most of the shopping areas that the tourists frequent are owned by the cruise ship companies and the workers are brought in from outside, often foreign countries. Even many of the tour / activity companies are not locally owned.

     The weather was still nice on Tuesday afternoon so we all decided to ride the Roberts Tram up a the mountainside above Juneau. It was a worthwhile activity due to the great views. We hiked a 1.3 mile loop trail that offered great views of the Lynn Canal below, mountain goats on the mountainsides, blooming wildflowers, etc.

 We went out for supper on our last night in Juneau...very good!

Black bears were abundant 

    We sailed to Haines on the ferry next and I will cover more on that on the next post.

Taking the Alaska Marine Highway!

We took the Matanuska from Prince Rupert to Juneau

     We departed Prince Rupert at 0430 hrs in the morning. The ferry schedule depends on the tide tables in order to get in and out of various ports. We waited in line from around 7 at night. We climbed into the camper and slept or tried to at least until they started checking us thru security around 1230 or 1. After that we waited in line some more down in what ever lane they assigned you until boarding started around 3:30am. It was just starting to have a hint of sunrise when we departed around 4:30am. We had rented a stateroom that could sleep 4 for this leg to Juneau. It was a 37 hour trip so it gave us a good place to store our coolers along with catching some sleep occasionally and taking hot showers.

The Matanuska was huge and areas to hang out including a large cafeteria.
We made stops in Ketchikan, Wrangell, Petersburg, Kale and Sitka. We spent between 45 and 90 minutes in each port. We saw a nice variety of wildlife as we sailed along. Of course our favorite was spotting whales. We saw several humpbacks along with an Orca, porpoise, bald eagles, sea otters, deer, etc.

Ferry terminal in Prince Rupert at sunset around 11pm

Inside the ferry parking...there were 3 more lanes on the other side

There were more than a dozen bald eagles on this beach not too far from Petersburg, AK

Float plane landing at Ketchikan AK

Joyce at Petersburg

The super fast cat ferry passes us 

The views were nice...especially when the sun came out

Steve and Leanne 

An Orca (Killer Whale) putting on a show for us

    I will cover our time in Juneau on my next posting.

Summer Trip to Alaska

     Mt Hood in Oregon

     This past May we headed out west to spend the summer traveling to and around Alaska in our pick-up camper. The first 3 weeks were spent traveling around the northwest visiting Oregon and Washington.

     In Oregon we viewed Mt. Hood which is a beautiful sight to see covered in snow as it tops out at 11,249 feet. We drove down the Columbia River Gorge hoping to visit some waterfalls. It was Memorial Day weekend and the parking and traffic at the waterfalls was so congested that we gave up on stopping and just did a few drive by pics. After that we drove on down to the Roseburg area and visited Crater Lake NP. The deep (1943' deepest lake in North America) blue waters were amazing. The rim above the lake sits at close to 8000' elevation and still had snow up there even though it was nearly June. The upper elevations of the park receive up to 40' feet of snow during the winter. The road thru some of the park was still closed.

 Beautiful Crater Lake

 Teddy Roosevelt NP in North Dakota

Multnomah Falls 

     We then headed to the coastline where camped and hiked at various Oregon State parks along the Pacific Ocean. Cape Blanco was first followed by Cape Lookout.

 Cape Blanco

View Rock

     In Washington we stopped to visit our nephew Alan and his wife Janell who live in Colville (north of Spokane). We went for a drive Sat. afternoon and enjoyed the mountain scenery. We did a nice hike to the top of a mountain that had nice views most of the way up. Sunday we went to church with Alan and Janell. After church we enjoyed meeting Janell's parents and brother, Ruben, while we were fed some great tacos. 

    We also drove up the coast and camped on the ocean before we spent a few days visiting Olympic Nat. Park.

Alan & Janell on our hike

Deer in meadow at Hurricane Ridge

Stream behind our campsite at Birch creek

 Hoh River

Hurricane Ridge

     We headed on up through British Columbia to Prince Rupert where we met up with our friends Steve & Leanne and Gary & Janet. We found a nice campsite in town and enjoyed ourselves around town until we got in line for the ferry around 7 pm. Our departure was scheduled around 0430 hrs in the morning due to tide levels. In my next post I will cover the ferry travel.

NOMADS Project @ Blue Lake Camp

Our camping sites at Blue Lake Camp

           We left our project at Moss Point by 0800 hrs Friday March 6th and headed to Blue Lake Camp in Alabama. Along the way we spotted a Wal-Mart and stopped to resupply. We arrived at Blue Lake around 1130 hrs and set up camp. We had lunch and at 1330 hrs we met with Mark (Facility Maintenance Director) and Terry (Camp board member) to check out what projects they had lined up for our NOMADS team. Saturday morning we welcomed Keith and Kris (full-time RVer's) the first of our team to show up. We had been invited to eat lunch at the camp dining hall, so shortly after they were set up we all headed for lunch.

      Brian and Marnie (brand new NOMADS from Minnesota) showed up next and settled in early afternoon. Roger and Beverly (also from Minnesota) showed up next and found a campsite that fit their motorhome. 
      Sunday morning we all headed into Andalusia to attend church at First UMC followed by a great lunch together at Larry's Bar-B-Q. After we arrived back at camp Bill and Ogie (full-timer RVer's from Hawaii), were waiting for us. Now our team was complete.

      We held our opening meeting around 6 that evening which gave everyone a chance to get acquainted and learn about the projects the camp had scheduled for us. 

 Roger and Brian installing a window at Pinewood

Brian cutting trim for the windows

 Roger checking out Bill's caulk job

 Ogie sanding the new queen bed frames we built

 We built and stained 23 new queen frames

 Keith and Bill taking bed frames up to the 2nd floor at Oakwood

Roger and Mark look on as Bill ties down the load of bed frames for delivery

 Bev and Marnie pre-drill slats

 Joyce, Ogie and Kris install new slats on the upper bunks

Roger and Bill digging it

We had to raise lamps up where we installed new bunks

 The water lines needed protecting at Pinewood

     We had several projects to work on during our 3 weeks at Blue Lake Camp:

Removed 8 single hung windows and replace with new casement windows at Pinewood. Also installed metal siding on a storage building at Pinewood. 

We built, sanded and stained 23 queen bed frames for Oakwood. These were placed in the 2nd floor over at Oakwood. We also moved six bunk beds up there and relocated several twin beds and frames thru-out Oakwood. We also repaired 4 doors and replaced a window at the nurse station. 18 new light fixtures in the solarium area in Oakwood. Several hundred 1x4 pine boards were stained and installed on bunk beds at Pinewood and Dogwood. Wood work in the solarium was washed down as well. Three protective covers were installed at Pinewood over water mains.

We enjoyed a game night - guys game & ladies game

Marnie made some great soup for game night along with these Dolphin fruit cups

Keith and Brian relaxing at the campfire

Smile Bill

Roger, Kris and Jeff roasting hot dogs - the rain hit about 15 minutes later

Marnie and Bev put on a fantastic meal for our last night together on the project as a team 

Thank you ladies for the great meal

Beautiful Blue Lake 

Love the color

     We had a wonderful team of NOMADS to work with and were truly blessed by each and everyone.